The Long Night
by lannerz
Summary: (Modern AU) When the kaiju first attack, people knew that the worst was yet to come; and when the Jaeger Academy starts enlisting, people step up to protect those they love and seek revenge. A look into the lives from Cersei and Jaime to Ned and Robert to Oberyn to Stannis and to their children in the later years of the war against the kaiju and what it means to be a jaeger pilot.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes:** So the movie Pacific Rim has definitely taken over a huge part of my mind and found its way into my heart. I saw it on Sunday - and then conned my friends into seeing it last night so I could watch it again. I could literally go on and on about this movie, but I won't. However, someone got this Modern AU!ASOIAF/Pacific Rim crossover in my head; and I couldn't get it out until I wrote it. This is going to be three or four chapters, which will involve snippets from different character's POVs. This first chapter is about the older generation.

I've got a timeline set up for this, but here's the gist of it. Basically, the war against the kaiju has been going on a lot longer in this universe than in the movie. The first kaiju attacked when Ned and Robert are 16, Jaime, Cersei, and Stannis being 14. (All of the age differences and such will be relatively the same as they are in the books, so Tyrion is 8 years younger than his siblings and Renly is 13 years younger than Stannis.) The jaeger program began when Ned was around 18, but they didn't actually start enlisting and drifting between copilots until Ned and Robert are 20 (Robb would be 2) and Jaime, Cersei, and Stannis are 18. I think I messed up Oberyn's age, but I have him at 21 I think when the second kaiju attacks and Elia at 22. (They are older than Ned and co.) I've done way too much research on this. SO, there is a four year gap between the first kaiju attack and when the Jaeger Academy starts enlisting pilots for co-piloting jaegers instead of two years like in the movie.

**Disclaimer:** GRRM owns all of the characters and del Toro is a genius for creating Pacific Rim and whoever else had anything to do with that movie and all the people that made kaiju movies before this one.

* * *

**The Long Night**  
_part one_

* * *

Tyrion is only six years of age when the first kaiju, Trespasser, attacks San Francisco. He sits in front of the television, wide-eyed and in shock, knowing instinctively that this isn't one of the scary monster movies that his big brother Jaime finds so terribly amusing. Clutching his stuffed lion, Lann, as tightly as possible and even holding his hand over the little lion's eyes, Tyrion can't tear his eyes away. It's only when Jaime comes storming into the house that Tyrion jumps and lets out a yelp, thinking that another kaiju had broken into his house.

"Don't watch that," Jaime says, striding over to the television and turning it off.

"I was watching that!" Tyrion tells him, trying to sound angry instead of afraid. (It doesn't work. His voice trembles and he can't look his impossibly strong and brave brother in the eyes.)

Jaime picks him up with ease. Tyrion is six, but small for his age and not like to get much bigger. The doctors… Well, the doctors say a long of things, normally to his father and most certainly not to him, but Tyrion knows more than he lets on. He knows that he's never going to be like the big brother he idolizes or the father that never quite looks at him straight or with love. "You'll have nightmares," is all Jaime says as he carries Tyrion outside onto their porch.

"I won't," Tyrion protests.

"You had nightmares about Lake Placid for a week; you kept saying that there was a crocodile under your bed. We're not even going to talk about Monsters Inc." Jaime looks away, out into their yard where the sun is slowly setting. Here, at their family's mansion called Casterly Rock in the England countryside, everything looks peaceful. Tyrion can hear their sister, Jaime's twin, Cersei, playing in the pool on the side of their house, laughing and shrieking. She doesn't know the news yet, but her laughter will be cut short the moment she hears that monsters are real.

Tyrion bites his lip. Watching the sun set at their house, it's almost like he didn't just witness the beginning of the end of the world on the telly. He can almost forget that there is a monster destroying a city thousands of miles away and killing people in the second it takes him to blink away from the sun.

"Are the monsters going to eat us?" he finally asks.

Jaime scrunches up his face into something that resembles their father's scowl. "I'm not going to let some stupid monster hurt you, Tyrion." He is fourteen, filled with all the bravado and immortality that youth brings, but his confidence puts Tyrion at ease. "We're safe here, with Father. He'll protect us. And when he's not here, I'll protect you and Cersei both. I'll always be here to protect you."

Except he's not. Tyrion knows how fanciful Jaime can be, even if Jaime himself doesn't realize it. He's got all these ideas, these dreams, and he loves every bit of his family so very much. For however little his father and Cersei love him, Jaime loves Tyrion three times as fiercely. Unfortunately, for everyone, Jaime cannot be in two places at once and when he hears the call to join the Jaeger Academy, Jaime does not hesitate to respond.

"It'll be fun!" is the main reasoning for enlisting in the Jaeger Academy according to Robert.

Ned gives his best friend a sideways glance, watching as the other boy downs the rest of his beer and then begins to explain just exactly what the Jaeger Academy is, as far he knows so far. Robert has always been pretty wild, filled with hot blood and an unusual need for mayhem, but he's pretty sure that going to war, head-to-head, with the kaiju is just plain insane. It's not going to be like that stupid fight he had with Rhaegar over the honor of Lyanna, back when they had been stupid and what felt like ages ago. This is an actual war.

(He tries not to think about Lyanna. Tries not to remember how it felt when he came out of the shelter and searched and searched, screaming her name until his voice was raw, until he could barely even speak. And then finding her broken body, bloody and bruised, gods… Gods, he never wants to think about that again. He was seventeen then, but he felt like he was a hundred years-old.)

Ever since that first kaiju attack when they were sixteen, Robert has been itching it get into an actual fight with one. It was why they had joined the marines in the first place, wasn't it, not just because both of them hailed from military families. Catelyn called him crazy, was so furious with them when he'd told her that he'd enlisted. Newlyweds at eighteen, straight out of high school, with a baby boy already on the way, and Ned was off joining the marines with his best buddy Robert Baratheon. If the kaiju doesn't kill him once he's the pilot of a jaeger, Catelyn will if he goes along with this.

"It's not about fun," Ned tries to reason. He's the reasonable one of the two anyways.

Robert rolls his eyes. "Then it's about protecting your own."

Ned shakes his head. "Don't."

But Robert leans forward, unrelenting, an intense gleam in his blue eyes. "It's about vengeance, Ned. Those bloody beasts took something away from you – from us – and I'll take whatever I can get from them, as long as it helps me sleep at night. For Lyanna and Brandon, for our parents."

Ned goes home that night with a heavy heart and mind. He tells himself that he won't follow Robert – but he's done that his entire life. Robert is more than just his best friend; he's been Ned's brother since they were five and playing army. When he realizes that he's going to enlist in the Jaeger Academy, he tries to pass the blame off on Robert, even before he tells his wife of his plans, but he can't ever bring himself to give that excuse to her when the time comes. He wants to join this insane program; he wants to avenge the deaths of his family. His father and older brother Brandon both died during the Cabo San Lucas kaiju attack. Their bodies had never been recovered from the wreckage of their shared plane.

"The Pan Pacific Defense Corps is searching for pilots for the jaegers," Ned tells his wife a few nights later, unable to hold his secret in any longer. "I'm signing up with Robert tomorrow."

He can see the fury in Catelyn's eyes – how she wants to slap him and hug him at the same time. Her uncle, Brynden Tully, was one of the first pilots of the Mark-I prototypes and risks his life constantly. She doesn't want to fear for the life of someone else she loves, even if Ned is already serving in the Marines. "I lost Brandon to the kaiju," she says instead, in a quiet voice. "Do you truly think this is the best idea?"

Sometimes, he forgets that Catelyn had been dating his older brother at the time of his death. He selfishly thinks that he's the only one to have suffered when he should know better. "I have to do this," Ned insists. "What kind of father would I be if I did not try to protect my children to the fullest?" He casts a glance into the other room where their son Robb is playing with toys. In the years to come, he will be playing with stuffed kaiju and plastic jaegers, pretending to be the co-pilot of a jaeger just like his father, alongside his father, hanging in the drift with his heroic father. For now though, he is two years-old and content with innocent toys. Their daughter Sansa is just a few months old, sleeping in her crib upstairs. She's so beautiful and he worries with every morning that she will not live in a world with hope if all of this continues. "I don't want my children to grow up in a world where they have to fear a kaiju attack at any second."

And that is all he can really say. He sighs, runs his fingers through his brown hair, and looks her in the eyes. She doesn't look away. She has never been the type of woman to back down and he loves her for that. Finally, for what feels like forever, she takes in a deep breath and then reaches up to touch his face, her fingers raking through the beard he'll have to shave tomorrow. "Do what you have to do," she states. "Be the hero we all know you are."

Ned is twenty years-old – he's only twenty – but as he signs his name for the Academy, Robert nudging him excitedly in the ribs, Ned feels like he's lived a thousand lives and hopes that what he's doing will at least give his children one great life to live.

Contrary to what people think, it is Cersei's idea to enlist for the Jaeger Academy, not Jaime's. The second she heard about the jaeger program, she knew that was what she wanted to do. The only problem was that her father said no. Tywin Lannister was not a man to ignore. As one of the first Mark-I pilots, alongside Brynden Tully, Tywin was a decorated officer and a man to be feared and listened to. She has listened to him her entire life, doing her best to emulate him; and so when her father becomes a jaeger pilot, it is the only thing she plans on doing with her life.

"War is not meant for women," her father tells her on hers and Jaime's sixteenth birthday, seventeenth birthday, eighteenth birthday. And she listens, anger blossoming inside of her, because one does not ignore Tywin's rules.

Instead Tywin puts the pressure on Jaime to train as hard as he can for when the time comes. Jaime is willing to work, but only because he has always listened to their father without a single complaint. So has Cersei, and so it frustrates her when she watches Tywin teach Jaime a fighting technique. She forces every bit of knowledge out of Jaime later, prying it out of him without any care for delicacy. She'd watch as their father pushed Jaime to his very physical and mental limits and watch as Jaime crawled into bed, exhausted and muttering under his breath that he was going to quit – and then she would sneak into his room, crawl into his bed, and poke him until he woke up, whispering demands that he tell her everything their father told him.

"I should know everything you know," she always claims. "We're twins, mirror images."

Jaime always relents, always, most likely because he can't imagine doing anything as dangerous and ridiculous as this without her, his other half.

When they are nineteen and Tywin comes home to tell them that the PPDC were actually hiring pilots – not single pilots, but copilots for each jaeger – Cersei stands up and proclaims, "Jaime and I are enlisting."

The first thing her father says is, "No, only Jaime is. You will stay here and watch Tyrion until we move into the Shatterdome."

Cersei snarls back in return though. "No, I will _not_ – not unless you want Jaime to fail." She never looks away from him, never backs down, even as her father stares her down. Jaime has not gotten up from his spot on the couch; in fact, he isn't even looking at either of them. Instead, he focuses all of his attention on the telly, where Brynden Tully is being interviewed about the Jaeger Academy by CNN. Even eleven year-old Tyrion is staring at them; and he normally avoids their father's presence at all costs. Cersei tosses her brilliant blonde hair out of her face. "I'm the only one Jaime could be drift compatible with and you know it. Our bond is stronger than most. He would fail without me at his side. He wouldn't be able to drift with anyone else and he would flop out of the Academy."

Tywin says nothing after that. He looks at his daughter for the longest time, her chest rising and falling, her cheeks red, her green eyes bright with excitement – and then he takes one look at his son, Jaime, the golden boy, and walks upstairs to his study, grabbing a hold of Tyrion and pulling his youngest son out of the room. He doesn't offer his approval or his congratulations for standing up for what she believes; he doesn't tell her that he's proud of her decision or admires her bravery. That frustrates her as well, but she's so elated over her victory that she pushes those feelings aside.

It's only when she looks back at her twin, shooting a little "yes!" into the air, that she feels something unsettling in his gut.

For however much he hates being a part from her, Jaime does not look too thrilled with the prospect of Cersei joining him in a jaeger suit. She tiptoes over to him and then carefully crawls into his lap, taking his face in her hands. They look so much alike that it's startling. When they had been children, it had been hard to tell them apart from each other and she had enjoyed pretending to be her twin brother. Now, at nineteen, she had a woman's body and it was so much easier to tell who was who. Once in a suit though, inside the head of a jaeger, nobody would ever know the difference again.

"We were meant for this program," she tells him, delicately kissing him on the cheek and squeezing him against her. "We were meant to do this together. It is _made_ for us; I can feel it."

Most people have never seen a kaiju in real life – and the ones that do always regret it. They either die or sometimes wish they were dead. Oberyn is none of the above. He is twenty-one when the second kaiju crawls out of the breach and attacks Manila. His family is vacationing there in one of their many "summer" homes. Where he comes from, it is always summer, but they always make a joke about it, especially since they almost always go on these vacations during the winter months. Still, it is always nice going to the Philippines to visit their mother's family, even more so during these dire times. He likes seeing his family, knowing they are all safe, and keeping a close eye on them.

It's just so ironic and spiteful that a kaiju rises from the ocean on their last day in Manila.

Everyone is running down the streets, screaming and panicking, poor and rich alike. No one is safe. Most safe zones or decent shelters haven't been built yet. This is just the second attack and people thought that maybe the first one in San Francisco, California will be the last and only one. Now they know – now Oberyn knows – that this will not stop at just one kaiju.

Doran is busy trying to tear their mother away from her prized possessions, but their house is too close to the water. It's too dangerous to stay there. She is stubborn, as she has always been, but Doran coaxes her carefully and she begrudgingly listens to him. Maybe it's his calm voice or maybe it's the fear in his dark eyes – either way, it is not soon enough. Oberyn is standing still as he watches the kaiju rise out of the ocean, ferocious and wild, the most horrifying and powerful thing he has ever seen in his life. He is struck by the sheer power of the beast, almost lulled by its booming roar.

"Oberyn!" The scream of his sister, Elia, is enough to tear Oberyn out of his thoughts and he runs to catch up with his family, ruthlessly pushing his way through the crowd until he can grasp his sister's little hand and pull her towards safety.

Everyone is shouting and crying and screaming, but he can't hear any of it over the crashing of the kaiju behind them. Buildings fall with every step and cars are crushed – and people are silenced in a matter of seconds. His eyes dart at every angle, trying to keep track of all his family members. He sees Doran holding onto their mother; their father leading the group and shouting at them to hurry; and Elia–

His sister stumbles behind him and falls to the ground, her hand slipping out of his.

"Elia!" Oberyn screams. He sees the look of panic on her face and then she is swallowed by the crowd of running people. It takes everything in him to not get carried away by the mob, but he pushes against the stream, screaming her name over and over again. Finally, he climbs onto a barrel so that he can stand above everyone and get a better look. The barrel shakes every time the kaiju takes a step closer, but Oberyn keeps his balance easily, keeping his cool despite his racing heart.

His intense gaze turns up and he focuses on the kaiju. It's tall – taller than anything he could imagine. His brain knows that it's only as tall as most buildings in big cities, but a part of him keeps thinking that it's the most massive thing he's ever seen. Its limbs are long and seemingly sharp bones practically protrude out of the skin with every step it takes. When it opens its mouth to roar, florescent blue shines through the smoke and fire. If it hadn't been destroying a city he loved and murdering innocent people, he would have almost had a mind to call it strangely beautiful.

But it is too close, far too close. If he doesn't run now, he'll be crushed or eaten or some other horrifying thing, but he can't leave his sister. He can't leave the girl he loves the most in the world.

"Oberyn!" A scream rips through the air. He looks frantically through the crowd until he spots Elia lying on the ground, curled up, with her hands over her head. When he goes to jump off the barrel towards her, she looks up and connect eyes with him – and then she shakes her head. "Oberyn, _run_! Get out of here!"

He knows what she's telling him to do – can see the strong, determined, yet terrified look in her eyes. She means for him to run away and leave her behind. He can't possibly do that though. He shakes his head and jumps back into the crowd, pushing his way towards her, trying to ignore her furious shriek. But rubble is falling all around him, injuring people, and there is smoke and he can't see, all he can here is screaming but it's the kaiju's now, mixed alongside his own. Oberyn catches a glimpse of his sister's dark hair and her brown eyes and then a slab of concrete comes crashing down between them.

Oberyn should have died right then and there, but the next thing he knows, there are strong arms wrapped around him, pulling him back into an alley. He fights with the arms, shouting Elia's name, but in the end he finds himself huddling in a corner with a group of children. When he swings his head around, he sees his older brother Doran huffing, sweat dripping down his dirty face. Oberyn is blind with rage at his brother for tearing him away from their sister, from not letting him save her, so much so that he doesn't see Doran's broken leg or anything else. He sits and waits, staring out into the smoke, thinking of that kaiju and his sister, long after the kaiju has been taken down.

Never once in his life does Oberyn wish for death, though plenty of people believe that he does, what with the way he travels all around the world in an attempt to join every battle against the kaiju. It's only natural for him to be the first one to step up to the plate when the PPDC first starts testing the jaeger program.

_For Elia,_ he thinks every time he steps into the room to begin testing. It's a dangerous way to live, bringing the pure anger and memories of his family while in the drift, but he couldn't stop them even if he tried.

Stannis wants to be a jaeger pilot. It has nothing to do with the fact that Robert and his best friend Ned have enlisted, though most people would say that it is. Instead, it has everything to do with the fact that Stannis thinks it's more than right to join the jaeger program. He doesn't want to just sit at home in their cozy Martha's Vineyard home and watch on the news about his brother's great victory.

Nonetheless, when Robert comes back to visit after his first clash with a kaiju in Vancouver, the oldest Baratheon brother makes it very clear what he expects Stannis to do: "I need you to stay and watch Renly, protect him, keep him safe and happy. Can you do that, Stannis?"

Of course he stays; of course he watches Renly; of course he tells Robert yes and nods his head, however begrudgingly. Robert is the oldest. Their parents are dead, killed in a boating accident that had nothing to do with kaijus and everything to do with just simple terrible weather. If Stannis were to leave, then who would Renly be left with: the family lawyer, Cressen, their old legal guardian before Robert and then Stannis turned of age?

So Stannis stays put, working in their family business during the day, and then watching Renly at night. Selsye comes over every now and then, but he still doesn't like the idea of her staying the night, not until their married. He keeps putting off the idea of marriage though, saying that the time isn't right. Who wants to get married when there are monsters crawling out of the ocean through an interdimensional portal? Besides, he's only nineteen. That's way too early to get married. For the most part though, it's just him and Renly.

Tonight is another one of those nights. Selyse came over and cooked them dinner, but then left, saying that she had to go to church. She still tried to convince him to join her, but the idea of going to church and praying to any sort of god didn't appeal to him. What kind of god would allow something like this to happen? Besides – and he hates thinking it, if only because it makes him feel guilty towards Selyse – the Church of R'hllor reminds him of some sort of cult, like one of those Kaiju Churches that pop up here and there.

Stannis sits down on the couch in the living room. Renly is sitting on the floor, having a mock battle between a stuffed kaiju and a toy version of Robert's jaeger, _Winter Fury_. The jaeger is a mixture between yellow and black on top of the grey mental, a bulky machine that is able to produce a hammer of sorts with its hand if need be. Renly is all about these toys and watches every show about them. To him, jaeger pilots are the coolest people in the world, like rockstars. Stannis knows they are just men in machines though and men could die easier than any kaiju. That doesn't stop him from wanting to be a pilot though.

Pulling his cell out of his pocket, Stannis dials up the only person he can think of, not wanting to watch the silly jaeger vs. kaiju show that Renly has playing on the TV. "What are you doing, Davos?"

"Just cleaning up dinner," his best friend responds. Unlike Stannis, Davos was quick to settle down with his high school sweetheart and begin a family. He already had a son on the way. "What's up?"

Stannis hesitates, already thinking that he should hang up and forget what he's been thinking, but he can't get the thought out of his head. "We should enlist for the PPDC."

"Marya would kill me," Davos says, which isn't a no, but it isn't a yes either. He sighs on the other line. "We've talked about this. I thought Robert told you to stay put and help raise Renly."

"That's a waste and you know it," Stannis replied fiercely. "We could do it. We could pilot our own jaeger. They need more pilots. Three-fourths of their recruits are mediocre at best. And how can I protect Renly by just sitting at home and doing nothing? If a kaiju comes crashing into the yard, I'm not going to be able to hold it off with a shotgun."

Davos is silent on the other end for a long time. He's thought about enlisting as well, to protect his family, but it would be difficult. First of all, he actually has a juvenile record for stealing and the government will not look too fondly on that. Second, he actually has a family. Stannis has his brothers, but even that is a stretch. He loves Renly (and he loves Robert if he thinks about it long enough), but he knows that piloting a jaeger is what he is meant to do, what is right, what is for the greater good. Protect the many over the few. How could he protect Renly by doing nothing?

"I know I'm meant to pilot a jaeger," Stannis says. "I have to. It's all I can think about."

He looks at Renly, who throws the stuffed kaiju across the room and laughs. Renly will understand – and he'll be proud of him too. All he does is talk about Robert, who is never home and has only seen him a handful of times since his birth. When Stannis becomes a jaeger pilot, Renly will look up to him as well.


	2. Winning the War

**Author's Notes:** Originally, this was supposed to be a much sadder chapter (okay, it still is), but then I realized that I wanted to talk about how the war is actually going for the first generation, back when things seemed almost good and somewhat promising. The years vary, as not every snippet is set in the same year, but it's been between fourteen-eighteen years since the first kaiju attack, depending on the snippet.

**Disclaimer:** GRRM owns all of the characters and del Toro is a genius for creating Pacific Rim and whoever else had anything to do with that movie and all the people that made kaiju movies before this one.

* * *

**The Long Night**  
_part two_

* * *

The war goes on for longer than anyone could have anticipated. Surely the kaiju did not expect for it to go on for so long, but humans are resilient and stubborn and, when it comes down to the world as we know it or coming together to fight to survive, they put aside their differences and petty wars. Because a war against each other has nothing on a war against the kaiju.

Nonetheless, that doesn't keep Catelyn's heart from racing every time she hears about another kaiju attack on the television. Here in Alaska, her family is not too far from where an attack could happen, but they're far enough inland to be relatively safe. The kaiju always come from the ocean; and despite attempts to wipe out the human population, they never get too far from the ocean either. It's a terrible thought, but she can't help feeling relieved that she does not live too close to the sea.

"Mom! Mom!"

Catelyn steps out of her bedroom and walks to the stairs. There is her oldest, Robb, barreling into the house, not caring that he is tracking in all sorts of snow that he'll have to wipe up later. He jerks his hat off and there is a wild look in his bright blue eyes that Catelyn recognizes almost instantaneously. She has already steeled herself for the news by the time Robb exclaims, "There's a spike in the breach – another kaiju, codename Yamarashi."

"Where?" she asks, but she doesn't have to ask. She knows, gods, she knows.

"San Diego." Robb looks fierce. He is twelve, but has been talking about enlisting in the Jaeger Academy just like the father since he was four. It is all he can remember dreaming about. And even though he is still just a child, he is so terribly brave. He has done so much to help her since Ned isn't around for long, so much that he barely seems like a boy anymore. But she can tell he is afraid from the way his entire body is trembling, the way he clenches his hands at his side. "Dad's been deployed."

Catelyn nods her head, presses her lips together, and says nothing. Robb gives her one more look before leaving the room to go look after his siblings. She hears Robb tell them the news in a quiet voice, not really able to make out his words. Sansa cries out, so worried and scared for her father, but she will handle it bravely. To her, Ned is like a knight in all the stories she's read; her father will surely slay this dragon, as he has done all the rest. Arya is different. She lets out a howl and immediately rushes into her bedroom, slamming the door shut. Much like Robb, she has dreams of being a jaeger pilot and it burns her to hear about her father going on these missions while being cooped up in their cozy home. Bran handles the news the best. Catelyn does not have to be in the same room to picture her son nodding his head quietly or see him rushing to the closest television so he can watch the news of the battle live.

She knows that she should be with her children right now, holding them against her, telling them that it will be alright, but selfishly, she needs a moment to herself. She walks back into her bedroom, shuts the door, and carefully sits down at the foot of the bed, holding her very much swollen belly. As she turns on the television and finds the proper channel, she never takes her other hand off of her stomach. She's due in a matter of weeks to have hers and Ned's third son. It comforts her just a little to feel a life they created together while she watches the kaiju crash through San Diego. When _Winter Fury_ shows up, her heart jumps and she gasps.

The moment the jaeger – her husband's and Robert Baratheon's jaeger – connects its first punch against the kaiju's jaw, Catelyn feels a kick from the inside of her belly. She looks down, tears pricking at her eyes, and hopes to any god out there that that is a sign.

"It's a Category IV, my friend! Category IV! Can you believe it?"

Willas Tyrell glances up from the novel he'd been reading and watches his copilot frantically pull his clothes on. The man has a stubborn habit of only wearing his boxers in their quarters and, if it wasn't for Willas, he would have done so throughout the whole Shatterdome. Instead, the hot-blooded copilot walks everywhere in pants, rarely bothering with a shirt or even shoes. Then again, he supposed that if he was as handsome as Oberyn Martell, he would forgo clothes as well.

"This is going to change everything," Oberyn says as he pulls a shirt over his head.

"That's what they've been saying since the first kaiju showed up twelve years ago," Willas points out as he pulls himself to his feet and grabs his jacket, sliding into it gracefully, "but everything feels the same these days."

Oberyn smirks. He's always so excited about being deployed; and Willas isn't sure if it's because they will be protecting people or Oberyn is able to get his anger out only when strapped into a jaeger. "This one will be different; I can tell." He claps Willas on the shoulder. "Now come, we must hurry. Who knows what kind of havoc a category IV kaiju can wreak."

It turns out, upon arrival to the brig, that things will be different this time around. Willas watches the screen where Tywin Lannister is speaking to them. Even a man as great as Tywin cannot be at every Shatterdome at once, but they always take orders from him. He's a constant for every jaeger pilot to look to, the man that began it all. Tywin Lannister is the first Mark-I pilot to survive and also one of the first to drift with another jaeger pilot, alongside his brother Kevan. Every man and woman in the Jaeger Academy, past and present, looks up to the man.

Except for Oberyn, who is too antsy with the anticipation of the battle to truly pay attention.

Willas gives his partner a short glance, too used to his behavior, before looking back to the Marshal. It doesn't matter if Oberyn doesn't pay attention, as long as Willas does, since they'll be in each other's heads and know everything the other does in minutes.

"A three jaeger team!" Oberyn exclaims as they're getting suited up. "We've never done this before, but I suppose we've never had a category IV either. I don't think it's necessary though. We could handle this beast on our own."

"Don't get cocky," Willas reminds his partner.

Arrogance is always like to get someone killed. There isn't a single good thing about it. He knows that from past experience. When he was young, he was something of a daredevil; and with a friend like Oberyn Martell, it wasn't hard to push yourself. It had been his own stupidity that had caused him to wreck his motorcycle and severely damage his leg, but his family still liked to blame Oberyn for it. The jaeger program, however, gave Willas a second chance at everything. Somehow, it makes him feel whole again. Whenever he drifts with Oberyn, he feels like he has a whole body with the jaeger and the prosthetic doesn't matter.

Oberyn just smirks again though. "Do I ever?"

"Always, brother, always." Willas flips a few switches, the weight of the neural handshake beginning to get to him. Those few minutes before the handshake always feel like just before you jump off a diving board into cold water.

"What two other teams are we pairing up with?"

"_Casterly Rock_ and _Dragonstone_." Willas has done his best to memorize every single jaeger all over the world and the people that pilot them. Jaeger pilots are a part of an elite crew. You have to be in order to drift and fight inside a machine like a jaeger. Oberyn, on the other hand, memorizes all of the kaiju and their strengths and weaknesses. Together, they have always made a good, however unlikely, team. "_Dragonstone_ is piloted by Stannis Baratheon and Davos Seaworth, _Casterly Rock_ by–"

"Jaime and Cersei Lannister, the Marshal's own progeny, I know." Oberyn looks over to him and Willas cannot help but wear a surprised yet impressed expression. "I do pay attention to some things. What kind of jaeger pilot would I be if I did not know some of the history behind our great leader? Besides, their names are tossed around everywhere. They're _famous_."

"Yes, well, the kaiju don't care about fame," Willas says as they are warned about the neural handshake.

Oberyn looks straight ahead, his mind already on the prize though it is not before them yet. "Neither do I."

_They're just children,_ Ned can't help but think as he watches his daughter Arya and son Bran play at the feet of _Winter Fury_. It's becoming more and more difficult to find join in any place, but even more so in a place like the Los Angeles Shatterdome. His children's laughter rings in the large room though, making other workers smile as they pass by. Arya pushes Bran's wheelchair as fast as possible and then jumps onto the back, holding herself up as they slide across the room. They'd both climb up the jaeger's legs if they could, but it's not allowed and impossible for Bran besides. He loved climbing before his fall.

Ned blinks the thoughts away. People forget that there are simple dangers out there – that you could get hit by a car or have a heart attack or fall out of a tree just as easily as you could get killed by a kaiju.

He walks over to them. The moment his children spot him, they both instantly shout, "Father!" Arya runs full speed, her shoes slapping loudly against the floor, Bran rolling behind her. It's been two years since his fall, but he's grown used to his wheelchair, despite only being eight. Stooping down to one knee, he hugs them both.

Bran pulls back first. "When are Mother, Sansa, and Rickon coming to stay here?"

"I'm not sure," is all Ned can say. He and Catelyn decided early on that she would stay at their home in Alaska with the children while Ned spent most of his early years traveling to and from Shatterdomes all over the United States and back home. He hates being a part from her for so long, is desperate to spend every night in bed with her in his arms, but both of them know it is for the best. Their family is safer there. Still, ever since Robb had joined the Jaeger Academy when he turned fifteen, they also decided that it was time to be together again. Arya, Bran, and Robb came to the Los Angeles Shatterdome first when Robb enlisted for the Academy, leaving Catelyn, Sansa, and Rickon still up North.

"I want to enlist in the Jaeger Academy," Arya tells him.

Ned shakes his head. "Arya, you are too young still. You know that the youngest age the Academy takes is fifteen."

"I don't want to wait five years," Arya argues, looking both distraught and frustrated. "I _can't _wait that long."

"There are other things you could do," Ned insists. While he is more than pleased with his decision to become a jaeger pilot, other than the distance it has put between him and his family, he hates the idea of all of his children following him in his footsteps. He knows it is impossible as well. Not everyone that enlists in the Jaeger Academy actually finishes. The ability to drift someone is wholly unique. A person could be the top of their class and beat every record, but if they weren't able to find someone they were drift compatible with, everything fell apart. Arya is a untamed spirit, much like his sister Lyanna was, and Ned often thinks that there is no one in the world she could be drift compatible with, not even her sister or her brothers. "Just because the world is at war with the kaiju does not mean that _your_ world must revolve around the kaiju."

Arya takes a step back from him, a determined look on her face but hurt flashing in her eyes. "I'm going to pilot a jaeger, Father, just like you and like Robb when he graduates."

"It's not just about you, Arya," Ned tries to tell her. "There is the drift–"

"I don't care!" his daughter shouts before she turns on her heels and storms out of the bay. The metal doors shut behind her. He knows where she'll go though; she'll hide up on one of the bridges and watch the engineers and mechanics work on Winter Fury's heart. It's her favorite place in the Dome.

Ned sighs and rubs his face. When he looks up, he sees that Bran is still there, a sad but accepting look on his face. It's much too mature for someone his age, but he's been like this for two years. "I wanted to be a jaeger pilot, too, before…" He shrugs his shoulders. "But there are other things I can do, right, Father?"

"Of course, Bran," Ned says, pulling his second son into another hug. "There are so many other things you can do. Don't let this life trap you."

Words are whispered behind their backs, things that people should never say or hear, but Cersei cares little for them. Instead, she turns her nose up at every rumor that finally slithers their way into her ears and she smiles dismissively at them. What do these people know of her and her brother? They know nothing. Being drift compatible with someone is on a whole new level that few people outside of the PPDC (and some inside of it) are capable of understanding. Still, one can't help but be slightly disconcerted by the relationship between the pilots of Casterly Rock.

For many pilots, drift capability becomes a symbol of loving one another. More than a few pilots were found to be romantically involved with one another or married each other after a year or so of drifting together. Cersei and Jaime are something altogether different though. She knows that they could never drift with anyone else but each other – can feel it in her bones. His memories are her memories are his memories and when they are in the drift together a thousand thoughts and feelings explode inside her chest. She isn't who she is supposed to be until she is in the drift with Jaime.

Which is why it was so surprising when she married Robert Baratheon twelve years ago.

Oh, most certainly, their marriage is an unconventional union. For one, they could never drift together. Cersei doesn't kid herself or anyone else whenever her and Robert's drift compatibility is brought up. The last time it was asked, she laughed in the man's face. _"Drift with someone besides Jaime? Do you want to render the most capable jaeger piloting team impotent?"_

So when her daughter, Myrcella, asks, "Why did you marry Father?" Cersei has to take a step back to examine the decade long decision.

Truth be told, she rarely sees Robert these days and their relationship isn't a marriage so much as…well, a convenience. Appearances are important, after all, especially to someone as famous and well-known as Cersei Lannister. Jaeger pilots are almost like gods among the common people, the only things that stand between them and the hideous kaiju. She can't go out in public without getting recognized, both for her prowess in a jaeger and her beauty. And while she cares little for what people said, her father Tywin made a stand a long, long time ago that any slights against him or their family name would not be tolerated. Image is and always would be important.

"He is a brilliant jaeger pilot," Cersei finally settles on. "I admired and respected that about him. He and his copilot were the first to pilot Mark-II's. And he…has a way with words. Everyone loves him. The people love him. Everyone in the program and the Academy loves him."

"Do you love him?" Myrcella asks, and it takes Cersei aback for a second. Her only daughter has never questioned her before, has never demanded such straightforward answers that Cersei normally refuses to give. It is her oldest, Joffrey, that is always the one pushing her to her limits. Now that he is in the Jaeger Academy though, training to be a jaeger pilot (something she feels in her heart that he will never be capable of accomplishing but refuses to say out loud), it is young Myrcella asking the questions.

"Why are you asking all of these things anyways?" Cersei demands, turning away from her daughter and straightening her bed. She has a large room to herself, a bed big enough to fit two for whenever Robert visits, if he ever visits. Jaime's room is directly across the hall from hers, but he's very rarely in it. "You should be finishing your studies with Tommen."

Myrcella fiddles with her fingers and looks down at her feet. "I just… I was just curious… You don't talk about Father much and he rarely comes to see us and when he does you look really grumpy…"

"Of course I love your father," Cersei snaps, not meaning to be mean but unable to stop herself. Before she can turn around to look at her daughter, the girl has rushed out of the room. Practically growling in frustration, Cersei slams her door shut and collapses back onto her bed. A small part of her prays for a kaiju attack so that she can drift with Jaime. That always makes her feel better. Thoughts of her twin brother rush into her mind. She pictures him practicing in the Kwoon Combat Room. It's his favorite place in the entire Shatterdome while hers has always been the solitude of her quarters, outside of their jaeger _Casterly Rock_ itself.

Tyrion will never be a jaeger pilot, never be a ranger, never be anything like anyone in his family – and so he immerses himself in books and papers and every bit of research he can get his hands on. He has read everything from the first paper published on the kaiju thirteen years ago, horrifically outdated as the information is. To be honest though, now that he's finishing graduate school and damn near seventeen years since the first kaiju crawled out of the breach, the data on the kaiju hasn't changed all that much. No one really knows what the hell the kaiju are or what they truly want, if they want anything or if they are just acting on animalistic urges. The data varies too wildly, but it interests him nonetheless.

Knowing everything there is to know about kaiju still isn't enough to earn his father's approval though, but it's enough for Tyrion to be allowed into the Jaeger Academy under the pretense of being in the Research Division.

"If I could just get a hold of an actual kaiju brain…" Tyrion says, trying to work up the courage to actually pitch this insane idea that he's had bouncing around in his head for the past few weeks.

"What do you need a kaiju brain for?" Tywin Lannister asks, not even bothering to look back at him. He's pouring over the world map again, like he always does in his spare time. As far as Tyrion can remember, this map has haunted his father, always hanging behind him. With each new kaiju attack, another marker on the map is placed where it occurred. After seventeen years of kaiju attacks, it is even more disheartening than ever before.

Still, Tyrion pushes forward. "We need to understand these creatures more. They've been attacking us for nearly two decades; and we still have no idea what their endgame is for us. Is there an endgame or are they just trying to destroy us all because they hate us?"

"They're monsters, Tyrion," Tywin snorts derisively. "They are incapable of feeling emotions, even hate. You should know that."

Tyrion ignores the implication altogether. "Should I? Do we know that, _truly_?" He does his best to word everything he says with as much care as possible. One wrong word will cause his father to throw him out of the room. It has happened on more than one occasion – well, more often than not, to be honest. This is something that Tyrion is passionate about. He's studied the kaiju for as long as he can remember with as much enthusiasm, respect, and fear as he could muster. "What do we know of the kaiju? We don't even know where they come from."

"They come from the Breach."

"But what's beyond the Breach? Surely they have a universe of their own. So why are they coming to ours?"

"To destroy, conquer, kill. Why does a lion hunt down a stag?" Tywin finally looked at his youngest son. The look in his green eyes is enough to make anyone falter, but Tyrion holds his ground strong. "They're monsters, aliens, animals – whatever you want to call them. They don't need reasons to do what they are doing. We are the superior beings."

"How do you know that though?" Tyrion exclaimed, his frustration bleeding through. "For all we know, the kaiju could be superior intelligent beings that have come to colonize our universe as their own. Maybe they are trying to communicate with us, but don't know how. Perhaps they come from a species that travels great lengths to lay their eggs or give birth to their offspring, but instead of upstream like a salmon or on the other side of the ocean, they have to travel to a whole new universe because of their size. The point is, _we don't know_. And having an actual, intact brain to examine and look at might be our best chance."

"I don't need to understand what they want in order to kill them," Tywin stated. "I just need to know the best way to kill them."

Tyrion threw his hands up in the air. "Is that all you can think of to do? Kill first and ask questions _never_?"

"Is that what you not did to your mother?"

The question hangs in the air, silencing Tyrion completely. He stares at his father, wounded more than anything. It has been twenty-three years, but the truth is that his father will never forgive him for what he did to his mother. _It wasn't my fault,_ Tyrion thinks weakly, desperately, remembering all the times Jaime told him so and even his therapist told him so. Shae was always adamant that his mother's death had not been Tyrion's fault, but it is so painfully difficult to accept that when his father pours every ounce of hate and blame he can onto his youngest son.

"Just…just think about it, will you, Marshal?" Tyrion says in a much more docile tone.

"I'll consider it." But it is clear as day to Tyrion that his father has already shelved the idea. Had it come from anyone else, Tywin might have considered it, but it appears as if his hatred towards his son equals his hatred toward the kaiju. They are both monsters anyways, in Tywin's eyes. "You are dismissed. Now, find Jaime and send it to me."

"Yes, sir," Tyrion replies and he shuttles out of the room, his mind swirling and his gut clenching. They need to understand the kaiju. It is the only way they are going to get the upper hand in this war. Couldn't his father see that?

"Your left!" Stannis shouts.

_I know, I know,_ Davos can't help but think, because if Stannis knows, then he knows already. He doesn't even think about pulling his left arm into a tight uppercut. By the time the thought crosses his mind, it is already happening and their jaeger's heavy metal fist connects into the kaiju's jaw. That's what he truly loves about being a Ranger, a jaeger pilot – he's at one with the machine. The jaeger is his body. When he moves, it moves. When he thinks, Stannis thinks.

It's a fucking miracle, is what it is, despite the "magic" or "god" mumbo-jumbo that Mel keeps spouting about it. A jaeger isn't magic; it is a man-made machine that he and Stannis can move on their own. It's science, whatever crazy science it is, not magic or god's doing. Back when he'd been his sons' age, he would have said that a jaeger was just science fiction. No way could it actually happen.

But it did – and Davos Seaworth, just some poor kid from a poor family that grew up in a poor house is copiloting a giant robot and fighting against a giant alien monster in the Pacific Ocean. How crazy is that?

"The boat–" Stannis starts.

"Got it." Davos reaches down and picks up the little boat that is floating between them and the kaiju. Once they get into the thick of it, that boat is going to be toast, unless they get it out of the way. Stannis reaches for the throat of the kaiju with their right arm as Davos drops the boat back into the ocean and pushes it as gently as he can away from them. _Sail away, come sail away_, he can't help but think.

"Now is not the time for singing!" Stannis snaps, not meanly.

Davos doesn't have to shoot Stannis a sheepish look for Stannis to know what he wants to get across. That's another thing he loves about being a jaeger pilot – the drifting is so fantastic. Words don't have to be said; body language doesn't even matter. Two minds melding together…When he and Stannis had finished the Academy together and found that they were, yes, drift compatible like they'd thought they could be, it had been great. Some people had to sit back and wait until they finally found someone to drift with. They had been lucky.

"Fire!" Davos announces, leaning forward to push the button. The left hand of _Dragonstone _turns into their special weapon, basically a blowtorch that is so searing hot that it can cut right through the flesh of the kaiju. Both Davos and Stannis scream as one as they push forward, shoving their fiery hand into the gut of the kaiju and turning up the heat as high as possible. The monster screams and flails, but cannot escape as they have it by the throat with their free hand. The best part about this weapon is that it sometimes lessens the amount of the toxic blue blood that seeps out of the beasts.

It's strange how he can almost feel the life of the kaiju drain out of it, despite not being connected to it. But when the kaiju stops roaring and falls limp, they both know to let go of it and watch as the kaiju drops into the ocean, dead as a doornail. Davos feels a sense of pride swelling upside of himself and a sense of frustration building in Stannis. With every kaiju they kill, Stannis seems more and more perturbed.

"Eight years," Stannis mutters once they are back at the Sydney Shatterdome and being unhooked from _Dragonstone_ and each other. Davos feels the sharp loss of the drift, as he always has since they first starting drifting. It feels like something is being plucked right out of his brain. "Eight years we've been defending this place, practically on our own, and nothing has changed."

"We're older now," Davos points out as they walk out of the head of their jaeger, "wiser."

"Just older," Stannis grumbles.

And he's not wrong. Davos can feel the toll that being a ranger has taken on him. He's not as young as he used to be. When he joined the Academy, he had been twenty; he graduated at twenty-two. Now he is thirty-one and he went to bed feel a little sorer each night. As he lay down that night, he could not help but think of his sons. Matthos already talks about being a ranger like his father, a few of the others as well. Marya sent him a picture of Devan playing with a toy version of _Dragonstone_, a big grin on his face. That's all he ever wants the jaegers and kaiju to be to his children by the time they are his age – toys from their childhood.


End file.
